My Story (as told to Ibu Bonnie)
by
Anak Berani
Hi everyone! My name is Anak Berani) and I am one of the rarest cockatoo chicks in the world. I am an Abbotti cockatoo and me and my family live on one tiny island in Indonesia, in the middle of the Java Sea called Masakambing.
Along with me, my family consists of only 20 other flockmates. Once upon a time in the 1980's there were lots of us and we lived on two islands, Masalembu and Masakambing. In the 1980's lots of people wanted us for pets because we're beautiful, smart, and very rare. People came and took my family members away and by 1994 there were only five of us left on the island. That makes me very sad.
In 2008, two groups of humans, one from America and one from Jakarta, started working with the local village to help us build up our numbers. My friends Dudi Nandika and Dwi Agustina from Jakarta started a conservation, awareness and pride program that has reached every child and school in the Archipelago. Everyone on the island is so proud of me!
So my story goes back to a time before I was hatched. In early 2013, a fledgling chick fell from a tree when he was trying to fly. A kind man in the village brought the chick to the King who asked that he put the bird back up onto the nest. Here is a cell phone photo of the King, the man and the chick. The chick did okay so the King gave the man a million rupiah for protecting the young bird. (A million rupiah is about $100 in the United States)
I was hatched at the end of October and my home with my parents was in a big dead tree right in the middle of a mangrove swamp. It was warm and cozy. But the weather on our island can be very bad during November to January. The winds whipped up and our tree fell down. I fell into the mangrove swamp and was very scared. I was not old enough to fly and didn't have my feathers yet. I could hear my parents calling to me but couldn't see them anywhere.
The next day a man walked by and looked at me in the swamp. His name was Samsu. He saw I was alive and hungry but walked away. I was scared to spend another night alone on the ground but I'm a tough little cockatoo. The next day he came back! He put me in a box and we went on his motorcycle to see the King. I had rarely seen humans but when we got to his house everyone on the island came to see me. The King gave Samsu a million rupiah too, and asked him to care for me.
Dudi and Dwi contacted the Indonesian Parrot Project to find out what things they needed to care for me and they came in December with food, built a small cage and instructed Samsu on how to care for me. Again everyone in the village came to see all of us and they had a big party.
| Samsu and me when Dudi and Dwi came to help |
But it turned out that Samsu was not a nice man. He took me out to his home in a remote corner of the island and gave me only bananas, sweet tea and sometimes rice. My little cage was hung up in a tree and it was very hot in the sunshine. I started wishing that I had died in the mangrove swamp. The months went by but I never lost hope. In April of this year, Bonnie Zimmermann of the Indonesian Parrot Project came to Masakambing to help with the project. Since there had been several incidents of chicks falling from trees, injuries, and occasions where my family needed immediate care she brought vitamins, hand-feeding formula, books and materials to share with the local villagers on nutrition, avian anatomy, hand-feeding, and to teach them how handle and restrain us safely. She also spoke at various schools, made a presentation for the king and the village to reach out to thank and encourage the people on Masalembu and Masakambing that have been doing such a great job protecting the Abbotti family. | Receiving flowers from the King |
Dudi, Dwi and Bonnie arrived at the home of great grandmother Bu Nenek Mahi, her daughter Bu Enju, her daughter Vu Ruhmi and her son, Salman Alfarisi. They had a beautiful home with a large marble porch which was perfect ... because you could see the Abbotti very easily from this spot! The next pre-dawn morning the humans went out to watch my family. We are so used to people since the island is so small. Then everything changed for me ... did I tell you that my name Anak Berani means "brave young child?" That morning Dudi, Dwi and Bonnie traveled to Samsu's house to check on me. Boy was I happy to see them. I was starving, sick, stunted, dehydrated, couldn't even perch and was was pretty sure my time was up. My cage was hanging in a tree in the bright sun and I had no food or water. The team decided they would not leave without me. Samsu only did this for greed and he didn't care anything about me. He asked them for a "reward" for caring for me and they just took off and left Samsu in the dust. Wow another motorcycle trip. Dwi tried to hold the cage on the back of the motorbike but it was too precarious. They ended up turning my cage into a makeshift backpack (with me in it)! Back at the home stay Bonnie immediately gave me water and some food. I was so weak I could eat no more than one small spoonful. If I could get stronger she would examine me closer but now I was very, very tired. The team assembled all the women of the household and local teachers and that afternoon IPP held a class in avian care, anatomy, hand-feeding, food preparation. Even though I was eight months old I would have to be fed every two hours just like a little newborn chick. | My first meal |
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Teaching the women
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After I ate again I took a nap on the floor of my cage and Dudi, Dwi, and Bonnie went to a women's cooperative who makes candy and syrup with the Abbotti name and picture on it. But they were too worried about me so went back to the home stay. While they were gone, Samsu showed up, said the cage was his and it cost a lot of money, and threw me on the ground. Bu Enju said that as soon I saw Samsu I started screaming loud. I did not want to see him again. She rigged me up in a wash basket and fed me for the first time. She was very gentle and I liked her a lot. Then Bonnie, Dudi and Dwi had to go to the beach to plant Mangrove with the local school children and teens. Mangrove is a natural nesting habitat for the Abbotti as well as a local food source. The kids were wonderful and so proud of their local bird. While they were away they asked the local police officer if he could make some sort house for me, gave him 500,000 rupiah ($50) and told him to do his best. Back to the home stay ... and my human heroes trained as many women as possible to feed me as we had to leave the next morning. I made it through the night and actually was trying to perch a little. I couldn't figure out why everyone kept trying to look at my poop. I figured that if I survived the mangrove swamp and Samsu I could do anything. My life is much better now but I do miss my family. It is hard. Every few weeks Dudi and Dwi reach out to Bu Enju with their cell phones to take photos of me to send to America. I'm famous now and even have my own Facebook page. I do have to take it one day at a time. I can climb, walk, spend lots of time outdoors but may never be able to fly. I still have to eat baby food, corn, rice, mashed up vegetables and cooked eggs and I'm trying forest food ... I do like young coconuts. But the best part is that I have many loving human mothers and I live right across the road from the Abbotti roosting tree so I can always hear and see my cockatoo family and they can hear me. In a blink of an eye, my family and I could disappear. Bad weather, smugglers and other predators are always around. Can you help us? Money goes a long way in Indonesia. We need to pay for supplies, forest guards, my mother for feeding me, reforestation and other programs to ensure my family stays vibrant and continues to flourish. Every donation large or small will help me and my family. Saya sangat ber terima kasih! Thank you so much my friends and will keep you posted on how I am doing. Love, Anak Berani Please help Anak and his Family Donate Now! |